Nine people, including children, have been sickened in an expanding outbreak of E. coli food poisoning tied to raw milk and cheddar cheese made with it from Raw Farm, a Fresno, California, producer, health officials said.
Two cases in California were added Thursday to the outbreak first announced March 15, bringing the total number of ill people in that state to seven. Two others fell ill in Texas and Florida, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over half of the illnesses are in children younger than 5. Three people were hospitalized and one developed a dangerous type of kidney infection, the CDC said.
No deaths have been reported in this outbreak.
Interest in and sales of raw milk have been rising in recent years, fueled by social media and growing support from the Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement. Raw milk has not been pasteurized, which kills germs like E. coli, salmonella, listeria and campylobacter.
Illnesses were confirmed from September to mid-February. Of eight people interviewed by health officials, seven reported consuming Raw Farm-brand products, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Two people in 2025 reported drinking Raw Farm milk and five people in 2026 said they ate or were served Raw Farm raw cheddar cheese.
Genetic sequencing of E. coli strains from sick people show that they are all closely related, indicating people in the outbreak “share a common source of infection,” the FDA said.
FDA officials previously advised Raw Farm to recall its raw milk cheddar cheese from stores, but the company refused. To date, no Raw Farm products have tested positive for E. coli, the agency said.
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro and members of the Congressional Food Safety Caucus urged the FDA to use its mandatory recall authority to pull the Raw Farm products from stores. FDA officials have not said whether the agency will do so.
FDA and state health officials conducted an inspection at a Raw Farm site. The CDC has advised consumers to “consider not eating this cheese while the investigation continues.”
— The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
FILE - The Food and Drug Administration seal is seen at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held talks in North Korea’s capital on Thursday and signed a friendship and cooperation treaty as the two Russian allies draw closer in the face of their confrontations with the U.S.-led West.
Lukashenko, who was in Pyongyang on a two-day official visit, hailed the document as “fundamental,” and said that relations between the two countries are “entering a new stage,” according to his press service. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Friday that the leaders discussed boosting high-level cooperation and visits and exchanged their views on unspecified “international and regional issues of mutual concern.”
Belarus is a close ally of Russia. Lukashenko allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory as a staging ground for the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and later authorized the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Kim has also tilted his foreign policy toward Moscow in recent years, sending thousands of troops and large quantities of weapons to support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine while portraying the North as part of a united front against Washington.
Lukashenko and Kim last met in September 2025 in Beijing.
“Yes, we didn’t have close cooperation, largely due to our own fault. But I am sincerely pleased to note that cooperation has now significantly intensified,” Lukashenko said after Thursday's meeting.
Leveraging his closer ties with Putin, Kim has been pursuing an increasingly assertive foreign policy aimed at expanding relations with countries confronting Washington as he seeks to break out of isolation and strengthen his regional influence.
Chang Yoon-jeong, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs related to North Korea, said the meeting with Lukashenko aligns with Kim’s foreign policy embracing the ideas of a “multipolar world order" and an "anti-West alliance.”
At the meeting between their leaders, Belarusian and North Korean officials also signed a number of other agreements and memorandums on cooperation in specific areas, such as education, healthcare, agriculture, and others.
“In today’s reality of a global transformation, when the global powers openly ignore and violate international law, independent countries need to cooperate more closely, consolidate efforts aimed at protecting their sovereignty and improving the well-being of our citizens,” Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko’s press service quoted Kim expressing “solidarity and full support” for Belarus and speaking out “against unlawful pressure on Belarus from the West.” KCNA said Lukashenko told Kim their governments share the “same opinion on international affairs.”
The leaders exchanged gifts, with Kim presenting Lukashenko with a sword and a large vase bearing the image of the Belarusian leader. Lukashenko gave Kim an assault rifle manufactured in Belarus, among other things. “Just in case enemies show up,” Lukashenko said.
Kim also hosted Lukashenko at an ice-skating show and a formal reception before personally seeing him off at Pyongyang’s airport, according to Belarusian and North Korean reports.
Kim has suspended all meaningful dialogue with Washington and Seoul since the collapse of his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019 over U.S.-led sanctions on the North. Kim’s government has been rejecting dialogue offers by Trump after the American president entered his second term, and has called for Washington to drop the demands for North Korea’s nuclear disarmament as a precondition for reviving talks.
Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea.
In this photo released by Belarus' Presidential Press Service, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko gesture during their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Belarus' Presidential Press Service via AP)
In this photo released by Belarus' Presidential Press Service, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko shake hands during their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Belarus' Presidential Press Service via AP)
In this photo released by Belarus' Presidential Press Service, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko hold signed documents during their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Belarus' Presidential Press Service via AP)
In this photo released by Belarus' Presidential Press Service, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, center, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, right, attend an official meeting ceremony in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (Belarus' Presidential Press Service via AP)
In this photo released by Belarus' Presidential Press Service, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, center, attend an official meeting ceremony in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (Belarus' Presidential Press Service via AP)
In this photo released by Belarus' Presidential Press Service, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, left, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attend an official meeting ceremony in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (Belarus' Presidential Press Service via AP)
In this photo released by Belarus' Presidential Press Service, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, left, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko greet each other during official meeting ceremony in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (Belarus' Presidential Press Service via AP)
